1. Field of the Invention
The present relates to a portable computer, and more particularly, to a portable computer having a display that can move smoothly relative to a base.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computing devices have become an indispensable part of our daily life. With the fast development of touch technologies, most hand-held devices or electronic devices, such as tablet PCs, smart phones, and PDAs, now provide touch panels instead of a mouse or keyboard as input devices. These devices are equipped with operating systems supporting touch functions to enable intuitive and convenient operations.
As notebook PCs are usually equipped with QWERTY keyboards and touch pads for input functions and they also use operating systems which do not support touch functions or interfaces which cannot recognize touch gestures, few notebook PCs have provided touch functions or designs in the past. However, as software vendors are rolling out new operating systems that can support touch functions and people are becoming familiar with the touch gestures required to operate tablet PCs or smart phones, it is now necessary for manufacturers to provide touch functions on notebook PCs or even to transform their notebook PCs into tablet PCs.
Some prior art techniques disclose a support arm for supporting and pivotally connecting to the display screen. Generally, the display screen can be rotated by the dispositions and operations of connecting mechanisms, such as pivoting elements, linkage elements, and sliding elements. Whether the connecting mechanisms are composed of linkage rods or sliding blocks in conjunction with slide rails, it is necessary to rotate the display screen by interactions of those elements of the connecting mechanism. When a user moves one of those elements, the movement of those elements results in friction between them. If there is not any buffer element or auxiliary sliding device disposed between those elements to reduce the friction, those elements in the connecting mechanisms could become worn after the connecting mechanisms are operated repeatedly, and the wear on the pieces could influence the rotation of the display screen. This may cause inconvenience for the user.
Therefore, it is necessary to provide a portable computer having an auxiliary sliding device for reducing the friction of a connecting mechanism to drive a display screen to be rotated.